Published June 24, 2026
Those wondering why Vice President JD Vance is heading the team negotiating the final peace settlement with Iran should recall how President Donald Trump’s television hit, “The Apprentice,” always ended. Finalists were assigned a complicated task, helped out by a team of former contestants, to complete to the boss’s satisfaction.
Like those TV finalists, Vance might think he’s auditioning for an audience of one. But the job here is trickier than that. Beyond satisfying Trump, the vice president needs to make both GOP primary voters and general-election swing voters happy. Balancing those three very disparate constituencies is going to be tough.
Satisfying Trump might be the easiest part. Trump’s justifications for the Iran war have been all over the map, but he has always been crystal clear on two things: Iran must not be able to develop nuclear weapons, and the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to all. The Iranians might not want to comply with either or both of those conditions. But in that case, if Vance returned empty-handed, it would be for a clear and acceptable reason.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a globally recognized expert on American elections and policy as well as global populism.
